


Damian Laughed

by AlwaysDreamingAboutFlying



Series: DC Fics [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Super Sons (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent, Dick Grayson is Damian Wayne’s Parent, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25153537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysDreamingAboutFlying/pseuds/AlwaysDreamingAboutFlying
Summary: Damian laughed. Like actually laughed. Now Bruce is having an existential crisis because when has he ever seen Damian laugh like that before?
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Jon Lane Kent & Damian Wayne
Series: DC Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822150
Comments: 7
Kudos: 364





	Damian Laughed

About a year ago, if you had told Bruce Wayne that his son would be laughing - as in full-belly laughing - at his phone in front of most of their family, he wouldn’t have believed you for a second. Yet, here he stood in the doorway of his living room (one of them), watching appalled as Damian unironically wiped a tear from his eyes while he laughed. From the corner of his eyes, Bruce could also see Tim and Duke giving Damian odd looks as he started to text back. Something told Bruce that Damian hadn’t quite realized other people were in the room with him, if the way he openly smiled around them was anything to go off of. Occasionally, Bruce might have thought he heard the whisper of a giggle coming from Damian’s room, but whenever he went to check on his youngest son, he was usually curled up in a chair reading or sketching as usual. 

Damian turned to walk towards him, stopping momentarily before Bruce moved out of his way. Staring after him, Bruce realized that Damian wasn’t ignoring them, he wasn’t registering them. He was too busy staring at his phone.

Now, maybe a normal parent would be concerned by that, but Bruce had seen who Damian had been texting.

Jonathan Kent, otherwise known as Superboy. He was the half human half kryptonian son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and Damian’s partner in (fighting) crime as the Super Sons duo. Now, he was apparently the one person on the planet who could make Damian full on laugh without realizing there were people around him. 

Scratch that, he was the second person to do that, the first being Dick. Bruce still remembered how seeing Damian laugh like that had stopped him dead in his tracks, similar to how it had done yet again a few moments ago. The joke hadn’t made much sense to Bruce, but then again, most jokes didn’t, so he’d just assumed that it was an inside joke and moved on. Later on, he’d tried to make a similar joke to Damian, but instead of a laugh and a smile that could brighten up every corner of the cave, all he’d gotten was a raised eyebrow and that annoying “TT,” noise Damian seemed so fond of.

Bruce would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little jealous of the relationship between Damian and Dick. He knew that in the short amount of time he’d been trapped in the past, his two sons formed a relationship and a bond stronger than even his own bond with either of them, and it showed with every interaction. Their connection went unsaid, and the two of them worked together like a well-oiled machine, one that they’d built from the ground up. If things got rough between him and Damian, the latter almost always went to Dick and came back looking better than he had when he left. So while it stung Bruce that his son seemed to think of Dick as more of a parent than a brother, he understood it, and let it be.

That being said, Dick was understandable; he and Damian had spent more time together in those first few months after Damian’s arrival, but Jon? Jon was new, and while he and Damian had been through quite an ordeal together, they still didn’t spend much time together. At least, not any more time than Bruce spent with him.

Though come to think of it, Damian had changed a lot after spending time with Dick, and even more so after befriending Jon. He was more talkative and sensitive, and possibly even more mature. Then again, there were also times where Damian was less mature, but in the way that a teenager was supposed to be. Damian played video games, snuck animals into the house, rebelled in a way that didn’t directly oppose Bruce but made it very clear that he was breaking the rules. In short, it was like he was finally relaxing.

Thinking back to the smile he’d seen a few seconds ago, Bruce felt something of him clench up while a lump started forming in his throat. The sound of his voice, the happiness in his eyes, the way his shoulders had bounced with each laugh? That wasn’t the son of the bat or the grandson of the demon; it was a boy, a happy little boy who had laughed because his friend sent him something funny. For a brief moment, all the pain and blood of his past had left Damian’s eyes, replaced with the child that had never been. 

Fourteen years old, and Bruce had only spent four of those years with Damian, and only twice had he seen his youngest son smile like that. It wasn’t right. Damian deserved to laugh like that everyday. He deserved to feel safe enough to express how happy he was, so Bruce would make it his personal mission to see Damian smile or laugh every single day. Maybe then, he’d finally be able to give Damian the happy childhood he’d missed out on.

“So, you guys saw that too, right?”

Bruce almost jolted. Somewhere during his midlife crisis, he’d forgotten about Tim and Duke being in the same room. Thankfully, Tim was a great reminder.

“Oh yeah,” Duke responded, plopping down on the couch with a bewildered expression. “I saw the demon get replaced by some happy spirit.”

“So we’re all confused then, yes?”

Tim had no idea.


End file.
